


Five Times Anakin Horrified the Jedi

by Merfilly



Series: Five Anakin Moments [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: 5 Things, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Slavery, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-22 13:03:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21302522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Prompt: Jedi realizing just how screwed up Anakin’s childhood was
Series: Five Anakin Moments [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768303
Comments: 50
Kudos: 442





	Five Times Anakin Horrified the Jedi

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an anon ask on tumblr

1\. "How do they make them obey?" Anakin asked, watching the drudgery being done by the working class. "Do they have bombs in them if they go too far from their overseers? I don't see shock collars."

Obi-Wan stared at his young padawan, horror gripping his soul. "Their society is set up this way. Very insectoid, with workers filling the brute force application, and other individuals filling other niches."

"But what if a worker doesn't want to work?" Anakin pressed. "What happens then?"

"I don't know, Anakin. Perhaps they have incentives."

"Probably deadly ones," Anakin said, as if it were a universal truth that all workers had to be kept in line by violence.

+++

2\. Ki-Adi had been handling Anakin's training while Obi-Wan was on a special mission. This was just a routine stroll through a mid-level, monitoring for potential trouble and wanted suspects.

Anakin, looking all around with such bright curiosity, kept throwing Ki-Adi off his stride, as he strove to figure out what the boy was actually seeking or finding in his observations.

"Padawan," he said, barely catching the faint cringe before the boy straightened and looked… up, but not at his face. Where had he seen that behavior before? Some species with rank and threat displays, he thought. "What is it?"

The boy hesitated, then spoke, rather quickly, to get it all out. "Where are all the younglings?"

Ki-Adi tipped his head slightly. "In classes, at this time of day. Education is first and foremost the priority for children in the Republic."

How did the boy not… well, some Rim systems were backwards, and he was from the Outer Rim. "Surely you had classes?"

"Who'd waste that kind of stuff on a slave?"

Nine words, and Ki-Adi felt a chill on his spine. What level of actual education had the boy managed to acquire, in amongst all the teaching of how to be properly Jedi?

+++

3\. Anakin looked at the packs, then the wreckage, and before Obi-Wan could stop him, he ran back into the twisted, burning hulk. After several panicked moments, the boy came back, coughing a little, and several food concentrate packs floated into Obi-Wan's pack.

"I thought I had gotten all of the rations," Obi-Wan said mildly.

"I couldn't waste the ones I'd kept from other missions, just in case," Anakin said, his shoulders hunching defensively. "I know I should have given them back, but the supply room has so much. Surely they wouldn't miss a few?"

Obi-Wan had to pause, to truly think through all of that. "You're always welcome to food, Anakin. Why did you think it necessary to hang onto emergency rations?"

Anakin looked at his feet. "You always keep extra food, and put it safe places," he answered when Obi-Wan tipped his chin up gently.

That came with a flash of gnawing hunger, a memory, through the skin contact, and Obi-Wan felt his soul fold in on itself all over again at what his student had faced.

+++

4\. Saesee Tiin had been giving piloting lessons, which mostly involved making certain Anakin knew proper spaceflight rules. The boy was too natural a pilot for much more, and he enjoyed this time with the boy.

Only, a distress call had come, and Saesee had gone to assist. They arrived at the scene, the aftermath of a pirate attack, and he had a moment's worry for the boy. Still, they were Jedi, and they moved to aid the crippled vessel, securing their airlock to the cargo ship's with a Force-assisted emergency rig.

The smell of death was abundant as they came in, and a body that had been hit with something explosive in the corridor near the lock. Saesee spared the boy a look then, thinking to tell him he could return to their own ship.

Anakin barely noticed the dead person as more than an obstacle to get around, save a small bit of pity. There was no horror, no shock at being confronted with a violent death in the boy's emotions.

"You are alright?" Saesee asked.

"Yes, Master." Anakin then looked at the crewperson. "It does look a little different if the bomb comes from outside the body though."

Absolute revulsion and loathing for Huttese worlds rolled through the Master, before they began the search for survivors. No child should ever have even heard of such a possibility!

+++

5\. Obi-Wan flinched as the blow landed on his padawan's cheek. In the next moment, he saw the fire in the boy's eyes and wondered if their captors had made the most dangerous mistake they could by not binding the boy as fully.

"Watto hit me harder than that. He had the right. You?" And Anakin reached out with the Force, grabbing all five attackers at once, and shoving them away in five different directions. A moment later, Anakin had his lightsaber, even as Obi-Wan was weighing a million moments behind his face.

Later, free once more, Obi-Wan let those moments of seeing Anakin flinch as if expecting to be hit guide him to his padawan. He placed his hands inside his robe sleeves, and knelt to be more of a level with the boy.

"Anakin… my title with you may be 'master', but I swear, I will never, ever hit you."

Anakin's blue eyes went very wide, reinforcing the color of the bruise rising on his cheek. "But… you have the right. Sla — students have to be corrected!"

That was too much, and Obi-Wan reached out, slowly, and dragged the boy into a warm hug. 

"Not like that."


End file.
